Kampala and Safari Hats!

Rachel and Arielle's Orphanage Mission
Hi! We just got back to Jinja after 2 days in Kampala, and we can honestly say if feels good to be back! We had a great time in Kampala, but our much smaller town of Jinja feels so much more like "home". We left early Sunday morning for a variety of reasons. In addition to it being a chance to get away for a little while, we also had to take a volunteer to the airport to fly back home, pick up an adoptive mom and her daughter, whom she has been fostering in Canada from the airport, and bring Jason, a 2 1/2 year old from Amani to get a biopsy. At the beginning of last week, he hit his cheek on a ladder, but by the next day it was a large lump that proceeded to get even bigger. The doctor at the international clinic in Jinja thinks it might be a form of cancer so he needed to see a doctor in Kampala for more tests. Please pray that it's not cancer and that whatever it is heals quickly. So, we left Sunday morning and got to go to church in Kampala, which was really neat. It was a big church with a big gospel choir that wore bright, African outfits and did a lot of clapping and dancing. It was very different from the other churches we've been to here but was definitely westernized. We also got to watch a Ugandan dance performance on Sunday night. It was in an outdoor amphitheater and had live music, singing, and lots of booty shaking! Literally, they shook there butts for 3 hours! They wore different tribal costumes representing different sections of the country and did corresponding songs and dances. It was really fun to watch. We spent the night at a hostel with our friend Amy (another volunteer) and also got to go to the craft market. The three of us bought hilarious old men safari hats (which can be seen in the first picture) that we will be wearing on our safari. We also wore them the entire time we were in Kampala, including into a restaurant. All the Ugandans told us we looked "smart", which means fancy/nice, which had to be a lie! The city was really crowded, dusty, and chaotic especially with no traffic lights or really any traffic rules. There were lots of people begging on the streets, especially kids. The drive to Kampala was about 2 1/2 hours and let us see a lot of the country that we hadn't been able to yet since we arrived late at night. There were stretches of roads that were sugar cane fields and tea fields but also lots of huts and markets.
Even though we enjoyed the break and it was fun to do some cultural things, we really missed the kids while we were gone and were so excited to see them this afternoon.
Coming soon in the next entry...pictures of the new preemie rooms, which we helped clean and paint!
We're still doing well and staying healthy. Keep us in your prayers and we'll write again soon.

Been here a month!

Hi Everyone! We are just writing a quick update before we head back to the baby cottage to paint the preemie cribs so they will look bright and happy as the babies lay in them. A picture of Arielle will be coming soon too! Most of our pictures taken so far have been on too high of a setting to post, so we are just starting to lower the setting so we can get more pictures up. Plus, they take forever to post!
Several people have asked about how our baby Katie is doing. She is still doing well and progressing! Since we have been helping her she has even gained almost a pound! That is a lot for her little tiny body. She is smiley and happy and has lots more facial expressions. Before, her neck muscles were so weak she could only leave her head turned to one side and couldn't hold it up at all. Now, her head turns much easier with help from us, and she is starting to be able to control her head a little better. She is eating so much better and sometimes eats 5 ounces in one sitting! She has not yet started her ARV treatment due to a Muslim holiday this week, but will begin them on Monday. We are continuing to give her lots of love and try to feed her whenever possible. When we walk into the preemie rooms the mamas will say "oh mama katie!" and know that we love her.
Things are really happy here and everyone loves the kids, but there are certain things that make you wish they all had a mom and dad so much! For example, in baby room 1 the kids are about 1-year old. They feed themselves dinner with their own hands, getting the majority of it all over each other and the floor. As they wait to be put in the bath they scrounge around and eat cold spitty pieces of each other's dinners on the floor. They are then put in the bath, and put immediately into bed. They are not rocked or held. They do not have time to sit quietly with someone. They just get put in their little cribs. Many of them cry for a long time and as we try to go around and comfort them and pick them up, you just realize you can't be there for all of them all the time. Emma (short for Emmanuel) is a skinny little guy who comforts himself at night time by slamming his head down repeatedly onto the floor or his bed. Marvin constantly rocks in huge motions while sucking his fingers. Others will stand at their beds and cry and reach out to anyone who is around. It is heartbreaking to see and it just makes you realize that as well as these kids are cared for, they are just babies and need attention and love all the time, just like American kids do. One of the hardest parts about being here is realizing you can't do everything. We wish we could make sure all of the children are rocked to sleep and sung to, but that is just impossible, so you do what you can, and make one child's night special. All of these kids deserve to be loved and cared for, and it's such a privelage that we can be here to love them. As much fun as it is being in Africa and meeting lots of interesting people and seeing new things, the true joy of being here is being able to make an orphan feel loved. It is completely impossible to spend a day at Amani and not be changed by these kids. They are amazing and beautiful and we love them so much.

More Pictures!

Hi everyone! Hopefully everything is going well for all of you back home. We are both happy and healthy here. It has been cooler and rainy here (cooler as in 75-80 degrees) so we're finally getting a little taste of "rainy season" after being here for 3 weeks! Although we would consider the "cool" weather perfectly fine summer weather, the mamas (nannies) here get overly protective of the babies and put them in multiple layers of thick, warm clothing, under a pile of blankets. Understandably, most of them wake up completely soaked with sweat. They definitely have a different idea of cold weather! Typically, only the kids in the toddler house wear clothing on a regular basis, since the rest are in diapers but yesterday all the kids were dressed because of the weather. They all looked so cute! We didn't get to spent a lot of time with the kids yesterday because we were busy scrubbing the preemie rooms from floor to ceiling. It was pretty disgusting to see all the dust and dirt that had accumulated in the rooms. They're painting both rooms (hopefully today) to brighten up the plain, white walls for the babies and wanted them to be really clean before they did so. It was fun to have a different type of project for the day and see such a diference when we were done.
The kids are all still wonderful. The first picture at the top of the post is of the kids in baby room 2 eating lunch. The thin, short table works out perfectly for the kids in that room because they make such a mess eating, and this way it's nice and close to the floor that it doesn't have far to fall. It's been fun watching this age group make so much progress even in the three weeks we've been here. In just the past week, 4 of the kids in this room (Shadia, Angella, Marvin, and George) have learned to walk and are getting very steady on their feet! It's fun to watch them because they get so excited and you can tell they are so proud of themselves! It's going to be a very different room when they're all running around! The second picture is of Gift, one of the toddlers that we've mentioned. She is so sweet and loves to smile for the camera! The last picture is of Rachel with Peter, Victor, and Vince, who are all toddlers.
Thanks to everyone who reads our blog and we really love when people write comments so keep those coming! Thanks also for all of your prayers and support, we appreciate it everyday. We'll write again soon! Peace in the mideast, rest in the midwest.

Pictures!!!

Hi Everyone!! We have finally figured out how to post pictures! Unfortunately these are not our best, because we just took some quick ones this morning, but now we will be able to post more!
The baby is of course our Katie showing off her big smile! We are so proud of her and isnt she adorable? It's hard to believe she is almost 6 months. We do have some sad news though...we found out yesterday that Katie will begin anti-retro virals (ARVs) Monday to battle her HIV. These drugs will serve as a sort of back up immune system, meaning she will have to be on them for the rest of her life. It also means she will not revert to HIV neg like so many infants can do! Thirdly, it means she will most likely not ever be able to be adopted because the US doesn't really allow HIV adoptions. We were devestated to hear the news of the ARVs and have fallen so much in love with this little girl. These drugs can often be very rough for the person at the start, so pray that Katie has a smooth transition. She will have two mommies though (US!) to keep her comfy through the process.

The other pics are of the toddler boys in the toddler house. In the one with the group of boys, Victor (my, {Rachel's} favorite!!) is the one in the yellow "muscle shirt" on the right end. The other pic is of the oldest boy Vince (in black) and Junior who we have written about, in blue. Joseph is next to them in green. I wish you could all meet these kids, they are truly all amazing and are so much fun to be with. They crack us up everyday and are so lovable! We are so blessed to have met all of the Amani kids and will write more about them soon with more pictures too!

Musa and Francis

Just a quick note...
Arielle and I are in town with Musa and Francis, two 2-year-olds who are the littlest toddlers in the toddler house. We got them cookies and Fanta, but I just heard Musa break the glass soda bottle all over the floor...whoops. They are being so cute though and are excited to be in town with us. We took boda's in and they loved that. We are going to take piki's home, which they will love too. Ok, time to get back to the kids! Still doing great!

"Arnold, what is wrong with you? You're in class. Stop your crying"

This quote was said by one of the mamas to Arnold, an 18 month old boy when he was sad during "class time" which consists of all the 18 month olds sitting for a long time looking at one book that the mama holds. Don't take it as the mama being mean, just more as humorous because what 18 month old can sit still and be in "class" for over 30 minutes? We just have to laugh!

Anyways, we had a very good weekend, we hope you all did too. Saturday afternoon we brought out a big box of dress-up clothes and helped the bigger kids put them on. We had a big photo shoot and then had a parade out on the road so they could "strut their stuff". It was fun to watch and they all had a great time. Saturday night we had Katie again. Since she had been so good the first two nights, we decided to try having her sleep in our room with us instead of out in the living room. Unfortunately, she had a bad night, being awake and fussy the entire night. None of us got much sleep but thankfully Sunday is our day off and we were all able to get some extra sleep. Despite her rough night, she's doing so much better! She's still extremely small but she's so much more alert and active. She is perfectly content just hanging out, looking around, and is smiling up a storm! We were even able to leave her in the preemie room for quite a while during the day yesterday and today.
On Saturday afternoon, there was a big celebration going on right behind the baby cottage. With all the gospel music played on a synthesizer and a long sermon about overusing cell phones, we thought it was a wedding but it was actually a graduation party for a young woman who had just graduated from university. Ben, one of the guys from Kenya who know Danyne and are living at the volunteer house, said that since it was such a big party, she must have studied some kind of science. Anyways, although you would never think of doing it back home, it's perfectly acceptable to show up at a graduation party even if you don't know the graduate! So, a group of volunteers went for a little while later that night. We didn't go because we had Katie and were tired. They didn't know it but it's a big honor if "mzungus" show up to your function and so the graduate and her parents made a big deal of coming up to them and talking to them. They were filmed dancing with the graduate and a bunch of little boys presented them with flowers! They were all really surprised to receive that much attention but said it was a neat cultural experience. There always seems to be graduation parties going on so we'll have to go check one out for ourselves soon!
We worked the morning shift today, which was a nice switch from our usual afternoon shift. A group from Minnesota (Shakopee to be exact) stopped by for a few hours. They've been here for about a week teaching advanced life support to health care providers at the hospital in town. They informed us that it was snowing in MN last week! As we sit in the 90+ heat, it's hard to imagine it being cold enough for snow! Although it's the rainy season, it hasn't rained in quite a while and until it does, it's just going to keep getting hotter.
That's about all for now. We have a new lead on how to post pictures so we're really hoping we can get some up soon! Thanks so much for your interest in our work here and your continued prayers!

Katie, our little monkey

Hi again! Things are going well here in Jinja, Uganda. We still are having a hard time getting pictures posted. We're going to need to find a new internet cafe and see if that helps but we'll get them up as soon as we can! It seems to be getting hotter and hotter but we hear that it's especially hot in December so I guess we don't have anything to complain about yet! We're both healthy, and hoping to stay that way especially with sore throats and colds going around the kids and some of the other volunteers. Two new voluteers arrived yesterday from Canada so the volunteer house is completely full! Until late last night, we'd been without power for almost 3 days. It's usually just every other night but apparently a tree fell on some wires and took a while to fix. We were so excited when it came on for a few hours late last night! We all gathered in the "living room" and watched some hilarious episodes of FRIENDS.
The kids continue to make us laugh often and most of them are doing quite well. Katie, one of the babies in the preemie room, is one who isn't doing so well. She's about 5 months old but only weighs about 6 pounds. She possibly has tuburculosis, is HIV positive and is waiting to see if she needs to go on anti-retro virals. She's looked pretty bad since we got here and hasn't really been able to keep any formula down, it all comes back up in a matter of minutes. On Wednesday, she looked absolutely awful and, after a two-minute coughing fit during dinner that left her gasping for breath, we both knew that something had to change or else she wasn't going to make it much longer, maybe not even through the night. After talking with the nurses at the orphanage in a fit of tears, Rachel decided to bring her back to the volunteer house to see if we could nurse her back to health. So, that night, Rachel stayed up with her feeding her 2 ounces every 2 hours, but stopping every 1/2 ounce to let her burp. She has to be fed sitting totally upright and can't ever lay down flat, otherwise it all comes up. She hardly spit up at all and by the next morning already looked much better. We kept her all day yesterday, except for a few hours in the afternoon, and again last night, during which I (Arielle) stayed up with her. It's so obvious that she's already feeling so much better. She's actually looking around, moving her hands and feet, cooing, and she even started smiling last night, something we hadn't seen yet! We're going to continue keeping her with us as much as we can just so we know she's getting the right formula, the right amount, and being fed correctly. There's so many babies at the baby cottage that it's hard for the Mamas to give her the kind of one-on-one attention we can back at the volunteer house. We already both love her so much and already know it's going to be hard to put her back in the baby cottage at night when the time comes. She's so skinny that she looks like a little monkey!
Some tidbits on some of the other kids:
Olga is about 1 year old and is in baby room 1. She has Downs Syndrome but is by far the happiest baby in the room. She's always so content to just play by herself but loves when you talk to her.
Gift is a 4-year-old girl who is absolutely beautiful. We call her Gifty and often sing "Gifty, Gifty, never knew you were so nifty" to the tune of the "Sister, Sister" theme song. We brought some bright colored nail polish yesterday and painted all the big girls' nails. Gifty was so excited to get hers painted and then pose for the camera.
Moiru is one of the older boys, about 4 1/2, and has autism. He doesn't talk, other than saying "Go Go Ga" while running around and flailing his arms (it's supposed to be Motorcar), but loves to be shown affection and will come looking for hugs, make eye contact, and sit with you for short amounts of time.
Bobby is about 2 and is in baby room 2. He is HIV positive and has TB (although it's no longer active). He loves to shout out "Auntie" and point to things and spends the entire afternoon every day sitting in the dirt and bringing all the aunties handfuls. He is the sweetest boy but is so sensitive that even if you move him so he doesn't get hit by the tire swing, he bursts into tears and toddles over to the nearest auntie to lay his head on their shoulder for comfort. He has super skinny legs and a huge head and belly.
More soon!! Keep the comments coming. We're still waiting for our Laguna Beach updates...

"Where da white women at?"

Hi everyone! Danyne, the director of the orphanage has been shouting out "where da white women at?" when she sees all of the volunteers in a clump or sitting together. She is so funny and is such an amazing person!
We were able to take children to the hospital yesterday morning which was interesting. 5 kids needed to go for their monthly TB check-up and Katie, a baby who is HIV+ needed to go because she is so sick. She can't keep any of her food down and is so skinny it's almost scary to see. She is too weak to move or cry even, and is dying. Please pray for her and for the staff and volunteers who care for her. She needs to get better very soon or will die. Katie was found in a city near Jinja in a dustbin. Someone brought her to the hospital and Amani later brought her home from there. The hospital is one of the nicer buildings in town, but is still horrible. We sat outside with the kids for at least an hour and a half, and when we were finally called inside the building, we realized they had absolutly no medical equipment. Inside the room, the doctor put a stethescope up to Bobby, a 2-year old with both TB and HIV and that was about it. As for the other children, she just talked to Mama Lois, who was with us from Amani. There were tons of children waiting to see the doctor, but we had to wonder if any of them would actually get much better. While we were there we met an 18-year old handicapped girl named Kathy. She walked right up to us and sat next to us and pointed at the biscuits we had for the kids. We gave her some and she smiled and then her helper came over with a Mandazzi (Ugandan doughnut) that she had also insisted on having. She didn't talk but gave high-fives and was smiling and was very sweet. She is living at Good Shepherd, an orphanage with over 200 kids all older.
A few nights ago we were able to visit Bujigali Falls with Danyne. That is a place that has giant rapids along the Nile. When we saw them we were both amazed, and scared and excited all at the same time! They looked awesome! Sometimes when you go there, there are men who will ride down them in a little plastic tub if you pay them. It is so dangerous though, and is not a good idea to make them do that (although it would be kind of cool to see). People go rafting down this part of the Nile and it is the biggest rapids in the world! We are hoping to be able to watch some rafters go down someday.
We have been loving the toddlers and have been helping with the preemies a lot too. Maybe you want to know about some of the specific kids? Read on! Francis is a little boy who is about 2 in the toddler house. He's the only little boy with hair and has little dreads which are adorable. He says "auntie!" all the time in the most urgent voice and waves his hand at us. It is also adorable when he says "boda boda." The kids are always asking to come with us and to go on boda rides. Junior is about 4 years old and also lives in the toddler house. He has the sweetest face and likes to be a good boy. He always wants to show his "aunties that he is obeying." He gets to lead the toddlers in prayer a lot, which is always adorable! This is how they pray..."Hands togetha...eyes cloesd...dee-yah jesus...bless ou-ur aunties...bless ou-ur mommies...bless ou-ur pineapple...in jesus name...amen (with a bunch of clapping and cheering). Of course they sometimes say different things, but it's always something like that. Musa is a little boy who is about 2 and has an older sister Maria with him. He's the smallest one and says "auntie how are ooo?" Getting really high pitched at the end. He is just a little peanut and so sweet. Sophia is in baby room 2 and has full AIDS. She is about the sweetest, cutest little girl in the world. She will turn her little head or put it down and then just mover her eyes so she can look at you out of the corner of her eyes...then she will slowly smile or giggle. She is a favorite of everyone and when you hold her she rests her little head on your shoulder and will sit like that for as long as you'll let her. It's so hard to think about her future sometimes, but it just makes you want to love her as much as you possibly can.
We will continue to talk more about the kids here, and about what we are doing soon! We are both happy and healthy and appreciate all your prayers so much!

Picture Post

"Auntie, I want to go with you!"

Hi everyone! It's been a few days since we have written, but we are both doing very well. Yesterday was Ugandan Independence Day so most things were closed for that.
We have been working hard at the babies home and have had 3 very full days of working as if we were employees at Amani. We each spent a day with the littlest babies, one with the next oldest babies, and one with the toddlers. This was so we could get a better idea of what each room does for the whole day, so when we rotate around we can know better how to help. Both of our favorites were working with the toddlers, who have sooo much energy. After a day with them our clothes are covered in red dirt.
We were able to go to church on Sunday. We each got to take a child, and I (Rachel) took Victor who is my favorite right now, and Arielle took Becca. Both are about 2 years old. We rode with them on boda's to church and the service was about 2 hours. The kids got to go to sunday school which was really good for them. After church we took the kids out to lunch and they loved it! We got them pizza and pop and the pop was especially a treat. We rode piki piki's back with them and they had a blast.
We had a potluck dinner at the volunteer house on Sunday night. All of the directors and volunteers came over and brought things. We got to have mac and cheese which was awesome and brownies and some other fun things.
We now have 2 more volunteers living with us. They are boys from Kenya and will be here for a month. They are a little hard to understand but it's fun to be able to have them with us.
We had twins leave last week. Babirye and Nakato were in baby room 2 and were about 18 months old. Their dad came to get them and was so excited about bringing them home. We aren't really sure about the whole situation but we know their mother died and they now have a new mom. They were both adorable and very sweet and it was sad to see them leave, but good to see their dad was so happy to have them.
It gets a little annoying to not have power at nighttime but we have been playing lots of catchphrase with the other volunteers. We will write again soon.
Arielle has had a cold and believe it or not Rachel has been healthy the whole time so far!

"Your mothers fed you well"

We've now been here for 4 days, but it feels so much longer than that! Not that time is going painfully slow but that we feel like we really have the hang of daily life here and it's beginning to feel normal. Yesterday we spent the morning at the baby house mostly spending time with the kids in baby room 1 and baby room 2. We're both trying really hard to learn all the names as quickly as we can and are doing a pretty good job. I know by the end it's going to seem so silly that we had such a hard time telling some of them apart for the first couple weeks but right now some of them look so much alike!
We really haven't gotten a chance to buy much food and we were both really craving fruits and vegetables so we decided to venture to the local market. We were going to go by ourselves but when we told Josephine, the woman who cleans the volunteer house, where we were going she replied "I will come with you". So, the three of us walked the 1/2 hour it took to get there and it gave us a chance to get to know her. She informed us that our "mothers fed us well" and when we asked if she was calling us fat, she said yes. This was later followed by Muusa, another male staff member, telling us we were too big for our age. Although we know it's a compliment here, it still takes some getting used to! Anyways, the market was quite the experience and we were glad that Josephine was there with us. It was really crowded and junky. There were venders everywhere and they all want you to look at their things. We didn't really get a chance to look around a ton but did get what we wanted. We bought a watermelon for $0.50, a pineapple for $0.75, and a bunch of bananas for $0.50. We also got a kilogram of carrots (about 10 big ones), 1/2 kilo of beans, 2 cucumbers, and 2 green peppers for a grand total of $1.25! We're still getting used to how incredibly cheap things are here- sometimes it doesn't seem fair especially knowing most of them have so little. We decided to take "piki-pikis" back home because we had so much to carry. A piki-piki is just like a boda-boda but it is a scooter/motor car.
After our market experience, we went back over to the babyhouse and got there when they were waking up from their naps. The afternoons are fun because from naptime until dinner they all play outside (except for the babies in the preemie room, of course) and everyone's so much happier because there's more to do and more space. The kids are definitely getting more and more used to having us around and their different personalities are quickly emerging. Around 5, a group of us volunteers each took a toddler into town for a dinner-ruining ice cream treat. It's fun to watch them just take in the sights and sounds of the activities on the streets, especially the piki-pikis and all the cars, things they don't see that often. Rachel brought Victor (around 2 years old) and I brought J.J. (around 3 years old). Instead of walking back, we took piki-pikis with the kids. They loved it! Rachel could hear Victor giggling the ENTIRE time. Just like on the boda-boda, you simply hold the child on your lap/knee.
Last night was another power-less night so Rachel, 2 other volunteers from Canada, and I played 4 intense rounds of electronic Catch-Phrase by candlelight. I guess our idea of "fun" is going to be a little different during out time here.
To our Ole girls- we'll miss you for girls night! We better be getting an email update of all the latest Laguna Beach drama (and the Ole girls drama as well)!
So far we haven't taken any pictures- we're focused on getting to know the kids first but don't worry, there will be plenty to come. We don't know if we'll be able to post them here but we will try.
We love you all, miss you, and will post again soon! We hope everything is going well back at the home front!!!

We are "most welcome" in Uganda

Hello from the Mazungu girls! (white people, for Ugandans)We have made it safely to Jinja, Uganda and have been with the kids for 2 days now. We got here super late on Saturday and couldn't even really see anything because it was so dark. We are staying at the volunteer house with a few other volunteers which is nice. We do not have electricity every other night, so we have to do things by candlelight, but we have beds and a real toilet, so we are happy.
The kids....are adorable! There is a preemie room with some really cute tiny and sick ones. Sandra has TB and looks awful, Katie is HIV pos. and can't keep anything down. Shiloh (I know, famous name right?) is this adorable little boy who is sooo cute. Then there is baby room 1 with the next oldest babies. They are very sweet and cute too. Baby room two has the new walkers and the toddler house has the 2,3, and 4 year-olds. We are already starting to learn all 60 or so kids names! The kids call the workers "mama so and so" and us "auntie rachel or auntie arielle." It is so cute! It is so fun that they speak a little English. There are no favorites yet...but that may change. All of the mamas tell us we are "most welcome" and are super nice. Yesterday we worked at Amani all day, gettting to know the mamas and the babies. We had our first authentic Ugandan meal and then got to take a boda-boda into town, which is quite an experience. I (Rachel) brought a baby with named Babirye who is a little over one year. Boda-bodas are just bikes with a little seat over the back wheel and you get on and a man just peddles you wherever you want to go. You hold onto basically nothing and its especially hard when you are holding a baby too! Arielle was holding a 5 year old who was one of the volunteers foster daughters. A boda ride to just about anywhere around here is 25 cents, and the drivers have to work so hard, peddling huffing and puffing. It is a compliment to be called fat here and when I got off the boda the driver told me, "You are heavy." What?? How can that be nice. They like to complain so we can give them more money, but it doesn't work well when they tell us we are too heavy. We went to Nile Market (We have already driven over the source of the Nile!) and bought bottled water and bread. Everything is very very cheap! We visited another orphanage called Welcome Home and saw lots other cute children too. We took ice cold showers and went to bed.
Today we got up and went to the baby house again. We spent time with all the babies and got to read them books and help feed them. They are very needy and oh so cute!! We will try to update once or twice a week. We are happy and healthy so far and miss you all!!!